A man suspected of murder is dead after he was involved in a car chase with multiple law enforcement agencies Tuesday afternoon and ended up shooting himself after crashing in Sandy Springs, authorities said.
The chase began when Georgia State Patrol troopers attempted to pull over 28-year-old Shavoz Levon Seals around 3:50 p.m. and arrest him due to active warrants in a September 2016 murder investigation, GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said Wednesday morning. Seals fled from officers in the area of Abernathy and Brandon Mill roads and a chase ensued, Miles said.
It ended around 4 p.m. when a trooper used a PIT maneuver to stop Seals’ car near the intersection of Brandon Ridge Drive and Brandon Mill Road, according to GSP spokeswoman Franka Young.
Immediately after the PIT maneuver, Seals shot himself, Miles said. He was taken to the hospital, where he died. A gun was found inside the car, Miles confirmed.
During the incident, a trooper’s gun was accidentally fired in a direction away from Seals, Miles said. The GSP has asked the GBI to investigate Seals’ death.
It wasn’t until Tuesday that Atlanta police were able to obtain warrants for Seals’ arrest, authorities said in a news release. He is charged with murder, burglary and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the September 2016 killing of 28-year-old Henry Horton.
The day of the shooting, Atlanta police were called to a home in the 1700 block of Richland Road in southwest Atlanta, where Horton was found dead from an apparent gunshot wound to the head, the incident report shows.
Horton, who worked as a hairdresser, was discovered by a client, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. The client told family members that she knocked on the door and didn’t get an answer. She eventually found Horton slumped over in the living room, family told the AJC. The family said police told them Horton may have been dead for a while, judging from the bloodstains.
On Tuesday, police and state troopers were investigating for hours in the residential area where the chase ended, which is just north of Johnson Ferry Road and the Abernathy Greenway. A photo from the scene showed a dark sedan with damage to its left side sitting in the front yard of a brick home decorated for Halloween.
